Archives

Kevin Meyer, Plowing Through the Land Records to Find Your Ancestor.  Because Americans were so “land minded” over 3/4 of all males who lived to maturity well into the 19th century owned land.  Because this is true, land records exist from the beginning of the first permanent settlements in America–frequently one of the few  identifying records from this early period.  A quality unique to land records is that the older they are the more genealogical data there may be to obtain from that record.  This lecture will focus on using these records, combined with other records to identify ancestors.

Come join our group for a informative question and answer Panel, along with birthday cake and lots of socializing.

Patti Gillespie will be presenting :  Genealogical Research in Wise County, Texas.  A county since January 23, 1856, Wise County has an interesting history concerning its records.  this presentation is designed to assist the individual searching for documentation within Wise County with emphasis on sites, repositories, and idiosyncrasies of research here.

Clay Patterson will be joining us with ideas on organizing and formation your story.  Ke will also give information on editing, Printing, and publishing.  No story is too small or too large to publish.

This will be Kirk Hathaway second time speaking to us on Family Search.  Come spend an enjoyable evening learning all the secrets and ins and outs to using and  finding more information in Family Search.

Patti Gillespie will be presenting;  Newspaper Research: Tips, Tricks, Sites, and Context.  Using newspapers that have become available to us in the digital age is a necessary step in our research.  This presentation will demonstrate some of the tricks to searching with OCR, how to determine if a newspaper in a given area is even digitally available, finding the free newspapers, and how to put these articles into historical context.

Diane Dyess will be instructing us about,   Southern Cemetery Symbolism.  Southern cemeteries, especially in the Deep South, are full of their own unique tombstone symbolism that is not only fascinating but illuminating to the family researcher.

Davideen Demske will be presenting:   Naturalization and Citizenship                                                                                                                                                                   This presentation is a fast-paced and in-depth analysis on how to find and utilize the genealogical information found in naturalization and citizenship records.

Kelvin Meyer will be presenting Probate: More Than A Will.  Most persons who lived in America, and lived to adulthood, left some kind of estate to be administered.  Some left wills, some did not.  Either way if there was land or large amounts of personal property, there should be probate.  The records of probate can be some of the most fruitful for genealogists.  wills, distributions, administrations, and inventories are all vital parts of the probate process and full of genealogical information.  These are the things that will be discussed in this lecture.